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Walkthrough:The Bull in the Borderlands
This is mission 4 in the Path of War, in Stronghold 2. Introduction After freeing a new ally, Sir Edwin Blackfly from Lady Seren's castle, Edwin gives a castle to Matthew Steele in return. The castle is lying at the borderlands, which is ruled by Angus McLoud, also known as The Bull. His main rival, Sir Grey is trapped in his castle, as the Hawk prepares to siege him. Steele must beat Pascal's army, destroy an outlaw camp to prevent further destruction and save the Holy Relic from Friar Jacob's monks, who are trapped in a small peninsula surrounded by wolves. Last, but not least, he also has to dispose of the Bull himself. The starting out and rescuing the monks You start with 1000 gold, 100 honour and a healthy stockpile of wood and stone. Your building abilities are limited at this point and you don't have any troops, but you have a big marshland and good deposits of resources at your disposal. You can only trade wood, cloth and pigs at the market and recruit armed peasants, archers and spearmen. Almost immediately, The Hawk will send a group of Macemen to accompany several troops (Archers and Spearmen) waiting outside Sir Grey's castle, and set up a Siege Camp. Fortunately, he won't attack until the "Time until Sir Grey is attacked" bar is fully depleted. Start laying down basic buildings to grow the keep Edwin gave you. Place stockpiles in the small bush forest near the keep, near the stone quarry and another in any area you like. Get your resources as fast as possible, watching the food quantity and any gong that appears in the map. Create a Barracks, Armory and Treasury to start training troops and get some money while you own one estate. After a while, Edwin will provide you with five Archers and Spearmen one-time only. With the Barracks, recruit as much Armed Peasants as possible to use as fodder against the wolves. Grab at least 20-25 Armed peasants and the reinforcements Edwin gave you to the monks, clearing out the wolf packs along the way. Once they're done for, send a unit to the monk holding the artefact to complete this mission. Wolves can and will attack your estate, so leave some units to defend them if they try to do so. While you can, block off the western area of your keep, since the outlaws can and will attack your estate, and force them around to delay them. Outlaws do not tend to attack wood walls, but they will attack gates so avoid building those until the camp is cleared. Completion of this mission will earn you 200 Honor, the ability to build inns (and hop farms and breweries respectively), eel ponds, some defensive buildings and 10 Warrior Monks. Destroying the outlaw camp Before moving on to the Hawk's siege camp, focus on the outlaw camp. The outlaws harass nearby estates, and it's vital to clear them as they'll launch occasional attacks on you. Outlaw camps create mainly Outlaws, but can also create Archers once in a while. It's possible for another wolf pack to be patrolling around the camp (oddly enough, they aren't hostile to them). To deal with the Outlaw camp, send at least 20 Archers to the top of the cliff overseeing the camp, as it's likely that a large number of Outlaws and Archers are patrolling the camp. Your archers will fire down on them, and the outlaws won't attack back, so wait until there are very few outlaws left before moving your melee troops in. Destroy the outlaw camp to relieve the nearby estates (including yours). Upon completion of this mission, you will get a generous amount of gold, 200 more honor, the ability to build bakeries (and the wheat farm and mill respectively), and a Church, and buy candles from the market. The church can be used to increase popularity to counter the negativity of taxes if you decide to do so. In a cutscene, a storyteller tells that Lord Barclay hired Olaf to destabilize the country. Pascal orders William to contain Olaf, so that he can complete his great plan. After William naively lets his brother alone, Pascal sells all weaponry from the royal armoury, so the country becomes defenseless. A constable in the Royal Army tells the King about this activity and advises him to flee as soon as he can from Pascal. Saving Sir Grey Your final quest is to eliminate Pascal's men attempting to siege Sir Grey. They will wait much until their attack is launched, so killing them is an easy task. Reinforce your army near the outlaw camp with 20 spearmen and 35 armed peasants. Catch up with your warrior monks and move your forces near the siege camp. Have your archers attack the enemy archers, and make sure you don't fight too much at a time or it will prove fatal. Clear the units and siege camp out. The remaining enemies should retreat and Sir Grey will thank you for your assistance. If you don't clear the camp in time, a much more larger force will appear and decimate his very weak forces. Move all surviving units back to your castle immediately. Edwin and William is shown in a flatland only for Olaf and a bodyguard of his to join. Olaf laughs at how easy it was to capture William and throws a bag of gold to Edwin. Edwin offers to give half of it back to Olaf if he gets rid of Matthew Steele. Defending against the Bull and Olaf You are warned to welcome a massive army. Hopefully, you should have a great army of archers, spearmen and armed peasants, not to mention the friendly warrior monks. A large force of spearmen, archers and laddermen will appear from the Bull's castle and set up a siege camp west of the castle, throwing out Catapults. Later on, one of Olaf's ships will dock and send out berserkers, laddermen and if his siege camp is not destroyed, catapults and fire ballistics will appear from it. To weaken Olaf's forces, you can buy the estate north of your castle and litter the shore with Man Traps; his troops should be severely weakened from stepping on them and shouldn't be much of an issue to deal with. The Bull's men can be dealt with the same way by buying the estate west of your castle. Once both forces are destroyed, you can now build a Siege Camp and Engineer's Guild. Defeating the Bull Now it's time to chase the Bull out once and for all. If you have never fought against the Bull in Kingmaker before, it should be noted that he is fond of training Macemen and Crossbowmen. Although the Bull in Kingmaker creates a Mercenary Post for Outlaws and Horse Archers, he does not build one in this level. He also doesn't place traps or hound cages in this level, but follows the same economy just as he does in Kingmaker. Macemen stay on the ground while he puts his crossbowmen on the walls. The crossbowmen will be devastating against your units if they fire on them, so send a hearty group of 50 Archers, Spearmen and Armed peasants outside his gate and construct a Siege Camp there. If you build it too early, he'll send his macemen out to destroy it, wasting a good chunk of gold if you don't have a large economy set up. Create 10-20 catapults and focus them on the gate and nearby walls. Rush your units in, clearing any opposition in your path, and get near the Bull who is waiting in a strait. Once one of your units are near him, he'll retreat and the mission is completed. The aftermath Sir Grey boasts about Steele's success. Suddenly, Friar Jacob appears, telling Steele that Olaf has invaded their monastery, looting priceless artefacts and burning the manuscripts the monks have created. Sir Grey tells Steele to reclaim the monastery, while he'll stay behind to regain control of the territory now that his rival is gone. Category:Stronghold 2 Walkthroughs Category:SH2 Path of War